How cold is cold for a chicken?

[CheerfulHeart2]

James & madtim

 

[12GAGirl]

I use a heat lamp in my coop and only turn it on if the temps are going to be below 30 degrees. I just put a layer of pine straw on the floor of the coops since the floor is wire and off the ground about three feet. Figured it will cut down on the drafts since we are having a week of very cold and wet weather. So, far my flock is doing well but my rooster does have a black spot on his crown? And it seems to have gotten there after a night of cold that I didn't turn the light on!

 

[SunnyDawn]

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Well a 15w is not going to impact them like a heat lamp does and we all understand the desire to be overprotective to all our babies! Necessary or not.

 

[SunnyDawn]

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That's the problem that Gritsar is talking about. If they are used to the heat and they lose it suddenly it can be shocking for them. Sounds like he may have a touch of comb frostbite, hard to say without pics. A really humid coop (aggravated by a heat lamp) can make for moist conditions and then a sudden drop in temp can freeze the moisture in the coop and make frostbite more likely! Switch to a low wattage bulb instead if you can't bring yourself to do away with the extra heat thing. 30 degrees is fine for chickens but a small bulb will keep their water from freezing.
Read the latest newsletters here on BYC. It covers this problem more thoroughly.

 

[DIMBY]

I have mixed feelings about this, since it got down to -14 one night late last year. I went ahead and put a heat lamp with a regular lamp in one of the hen houses. After a few nights, the hens started to use the unheated one! I even replaced the lamp with a red lamp (for reptiles), but my hens didn't come back - except to lay their eggs right under the lamp. Which was actually kind of nice since we haven't had a day above 40 here since November, and most days have been below 30. That meant I didn't have any frozen eggs. However, this may be something to think about - my hens, six now, have consistently laid between 28 to 30 eggs per week. They ARE young and breed-hardy (Aussies, Black Stars and NHR), but still compared with my other BTC pals, mine have outproduced everybody. Maybe its the light, I dunno.

 

[DIMBY]

Shoot, forgot to mention, I'm really packing the hen house they're using with lots of straw.

 

[Rlilchickadee]

We had -30 here and ours had no heat and seemed to make it. They probably hate it as much as I do, but they are fine.

 

[SunnyDawn]

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Wow! Now that is cold! Brrrrrrrrrr

 

[All about the EGG]

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What kind of cold are you talking about? 50 degrees??

 

[rancher hicks]

I've read the posts about fire and heat lights. Iv;'e been using a red one all the time and a white one toward that back part of the coop that gets little light. The seem to be fine with the red light and go to roost with the white just fine. My coop is divided in two so it's really two coops in one. They dont' seem to mind going in at night. The clamps are secured by nails and not where the birds will hit them and I think if there is any benefit it is small. It has two sets of windows on the north and east side.
My point being if you use lights make sure they are far enough away from the birds so they don't get hit by them jumping and secure them with nails or something else. It's been below 0 here and I'm not takeing any chances. One thing you can do for the combs is rub them with vaseline. I know as a former letter carrier I used to rub it on my face to avoid wind burn.